Outsourcing to the Philippines: Do Filipinos speak English well?

The Filipinos’ English fluency is world renowned, and it’s one of the reasons why companies are outsourcing to the Philippines. English is the second official language in the country, and so locals are taught to speak the language proficiently starting from childhood.

English in the everyday life

At an early age, most Filipinos can already understand English. Kids watch popular cartoons where the characters speak the language and certain households even use it for daily conversations.

The English language is also the medium for communication and textbooks in certain technical subjects in the academe, from elementary to college. Aside from education, it is also used in legal and businesses discourses, as well as in media and advertising. To put it simply, English is a part of Filipinos’ everyday living. It is spoken in different archipelagos in the country, not just in Metro Manila.

How fluent Filipinos are in English?

One only has to talk to regular Filipino employees to learn that they speak the language proficiently. Customer service representatives, in particular, can be so good that customers in the US or other locations wouldn’t know that they are speaking with Filipino agents under companies outsourcing to the Philippines.

The country itself has received worldwide recognition in this area. The Philippines is recognized by GlobalEnglish Corp as the best in Business English in the workplace, beating more advanced countries. It has also been named by the BBC as the world’s budget English language teacher, attracting students from countries such as Korea.

Prestigious educational institutions like the University of the Philippines and the Ateneo de Manila University are included in the top 50 best English-teaching universities, according to Quacquarelli Symonds world rankings.

These are just further evidence of the Filipinos’ fluency in the language. They can use it during casual or business-formal conversations, and this makes them suitable for call center and outsourcing operations.